How Innovations Were Left to Die by Ignorance & Arrogance of The Experts (Part 1)
Stories of innovations and innvators are fascinating to read. In modern-day, innovation stories are like myths. They follow what screenwriters call the start-middle-end story narrative.
But real life is not as easy as they portray. Some innovation stories take shape over the decades. They are non-linear, have multiple story-lines and can never be attributed to one for implementation (a concept can be attributed to one though).
#4 Continents were connected by land bridges, they said
Alfred Wagner and his brother flew in a balloon flight for straight 52.5 hours. He was 26 then. In the same year, he forayed into an expedition in Greenland to explore the unexplored part. It was his first among the four such expeditions later.
He pioneered in polar research, set-up meteorological centres for further studies in climate. His lectures are pretty much textbook material for meteorology.
Sadly, he became (in)famous for proposing the then-novel and preposterous Continental Drift Theory.
A theory he came across while observing a world map of continents and finding that continents fit together if they were a jigsaw puzzle. Yes, the continent of South America perfectly fits with the African continent. He called it the Pangea- one Earth.
His theory proposed that over a period of million years, the continents drifted apart. It explained why look-alike plant and animal fossils appeared in different continents. It also explained the reason for similar rock formations on both sides.
It was 1912 and such an idea would never make through. His idea needed acceptance from the community of geologists at the German Geological Society. He was a meteorologist (and later also called as geophysicist) and more importantly, an outsider. The experts punctured his explanations for the lack of evidence. They picked up an error- he proposed the rate of continental drift to be 250 cm/year. The modern-day accepted rate is 2.5 cm/year. Safi Bahcall calls it a False Fail.
It took 55 years, many parallel research projects to find the reason for continental drift- the shifting of tectonic plates hidden deep inside the ocean and on earth’s crust.
The satellite images have confirmed the existence of tectonic plates and hence the continental drift theory.
Btw, experts said they must be connected by now submerged land bridges; without any empirical evidence!
#3 The Birth of Semmelweis Reflexe
Ignaz Semmelweis worked as a doctor in the maternity department of Vienna General Hospital in 1847. There were two wards- one managed by midwives (called Clinic 1) and the other by male doctors and medical students (called Clinic 2).
He was concerned with the rise of puerperal fever (child fever) among the women who gave birth. Women giving berth in Clinic 2 died due to this fever almost 5 times more than women giving berth in Clinic 1. In short, the mortality rate of women in Clinic 2 was higher than that at Clinic 1.
The reputation of the two clinics was well-known outside. One woman begged Ignaz Semmelweis to be shifted to clinic 1 for safe delivery. It is said women even preferred street birth than getting admitted to Clinic 2. It further puzzled him to find women giving birth on the streets wouldn’t contract puerperal fever!
Semmelweis was troubled to the extent he felt his life meaningless if he cannot solve the problem.
The two clinics used the same tools and techniques. He used the process of elimination to arrive at a differing point. He eliminated religious regions, overcrowding in Clinic 1 and even climate cause. He finally found one- people who worked in both the clinics. The only difference.
Clinic 1 had midwives selected to deliver while Clinic 2 had medical students. However, medical students were also involved in autopsy duties. They came in touch with dead bodies and carried germs with them. With germs on their hands, when they delivered, women contracted puerperal fever.
Now you may say- rubbish, they would have washed their hands! You’re right. They should have, but they didn’t. Because they didn’t know they have to.
The breakthrough happened when a friend of Semmelweis died after he was accidentally poked with a scalpel used for post-mortem. He had a similar pathological condition to that of women dying from puerperal fever.
It meant midwives never performed autopsies and hence they carried no germs while the medical students and male doctors did.
So Semmelweis made it compulsory for the medical students to wash their hands in soap and chlorine solution. He instituted handwashing practice that later went on to make Lifebuoy a billion-dollars brand.
It worked. The mortality rate dropped dramatically. It dropped to Zero in three months. All he asked the doctors to do after an autopsy- wash your hands.
And then reality dawned upon him…..
He presented the results to his community of doctors. They laughed, ridiculed and called him a non-medical fellow. Why? Because the doctors and surgeon community firmly believed the disease spread through an imbalance of humors.
The doctors felt that accepting presence of germs on their hands is an insult to their social status- it meant a gentleman being unclean. To add, the germ theory of diseases was too new to be accepted until Louis Pasteur came out with his breakthrough discovery. And Semmelweis’s language of explanation lacked science. ‘Washing hands’ is anything but scientific!
He spent 14 years presenting his findings at various medical forums, committees. None accepted. He also published a book in 1861. As expected, it was poorly reviewed.
Finally, in 1865, Semmelweis suffered severe depression, absent-mindedness leading to a mental breakdown. He was admitted in a mental asylum where he eventually died.
More than 20 years later, the germ theory was accepted after the works of Louis Pasteur were published explaining the reason behind hand washing.
It also gave us a term- Semmelweis Reflex- a certain type of human behaviour that instinctively rejects a new idea/theory/knowledge because it contradicts the entrenched norms and beliefs.
I would have loved to share two more stories. But I am already 900+ words. Part 2 coming soon.
Btw, a parting thought
